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Mahoning County firm to assess needs for dog shelter
YOUNGSTOWN
The Mahoning County commissioners have authorized a Liberty Township architectural firm to perform a needs assessment for the new county dog shelter it will design.
On Thursday, they authorized Copich Architects to prepare the assessment, known as a “program of requirements,” for the shelter, which will occupy a former fitness center at 1230 N. Meridian Road in Austintown.
The commissioners hired Copich last month to provide an estimated $250,000 worth of architectural and engineering services for the new shelter.
After a bank foreclosure, the county acquired the 8,540-square-foot building on nearly 7 acres for $250,000, plus a $25,000 auctioneer’s fee.
The commissioners approved the issuance and sale of bonds for up to $1,015,000 to renovate the building into a dog shelter last September.
The Meridian Road building will replace the current county dog pound on Industrial Road on Youngstown’s West Side.
County Dog Warden Dianne Fry said she hopes the new dog shelter can be open for business by the end of next year.
The new facility will offer double the space of the current pound and will be more efficient, easier to clean and healthier for the dogs, Fry said.
The commissioners also heard Toni Tablack, county Child Support Enforcement Agency program administrator, give a presentation concerning August as Child Support Awareness Month.
The commissioners presented CSEA with a resolution in support of that observance.
Tablack said her agency has already collected $127,000 in child support from interception of insurance settlements after events, such as auto accidents and dog bites, over the past two years, with $110,000 more to come from pending settlements.
Between last October and the end of July, she said her agency has collected an additional $61,000 in child support from interception of racino and casino winnings.
“If you hit for $1,200 or more, the money’s coming to us. You’re not going home with money from the casino or racino,” if child support is owed, she said.
Under a “Deals for Your Wheels” program this month, the agency will reinstate the suspended driver’s licenses of child support debtors in exchange for their payment of one month’s support, plus $1, together with a $25 license reinstatement fee.
Reinstatement program participants who aren’t working must also agree to seek employment.